Photojournalist, Professor, Loyola Marymount University

Tara Pixley, Ph.D., is a Jamaican-American photographer and professor with a 20-year career in visual journalism. Dr. Pixley is the Executive Director of Authority Collective, and is a 2022 Reynolds Journalism Fellow and Pulitzer Center Grantee, a 2021 IWMF NextGen Fellow, a 2020 recipient of the World Press Photo Solutions Visual Journalism Initiative and was a 2016 Visiting Knight Fellow at Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism. Her writing and photography have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, Newsweek, ProPublica, HuffPost, Nieman Reports, ESPN Magazine, and the Black Scholar, among many other publications.

As a strategic storytelling and social impact consultant, Dr. Pixley combines her expertise in visual storytelling, critical cultural theory, and equity practices to work with media organizations, brands, production companies, film sets, and nonprofits. She has led 35+ workshops, panels, and guest lectures on visual ethics, journalist safety, the social impact of visual storytelling, inclusive pedagogy, and decolonizing journalism for dozens of newsrooms, museums, colleges, and organizations. Currently, Dr. Pixley is producing the Source of Safety project and documenting the environmental justice issues of Southern California oil production. Most recently, she oversaw the research and writing of the 2022 State of Photography Report and edited the Guide to Inclusive Photography. She is also a co-Founder of Authority Collective — an organization dedicated to diversifying perspectives in visual media — and a co-Author of the Photo Bill of Rights.